Stipe
Miocic seems intent on legacy building as he maneuvers through
the latter stages of his outstanding career.
The two-time
Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder will
return to the cage sometime in 2023, having spent two years on the
sidelines while the division he twice ruled shuffled its deck.
Miocic remains armed with a hall-of-fame resume anchored by wins
over some of the sport’s all-time greats. Newly minted heavyweight
champion
Jon Jones has
already targeted the 6-foot-4 wrestle-boxer for his first title
defense.
As Miocic awaits word on his next move from UFC matchmakers, a look
at some of the numbers that have accompanied him to this point.
40: Years of age for Miocic, who was born in Euclid, Ohio, on Aug.
19, 1982. Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger,” John Cougar’s “Hurts So
Good,” The
Steve
Miller Band’s “Abracadabra,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me” and
Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” were the Top 5 songs on the
Billboard Hot 100 list at the time.
15: Miocic victories by knockout or technical knockout, accounting
for 75% of his career total. His list of UFC victims:
Daniel
Cormier,
Junior dos
Santos,
Alistair
Overeem,
Fabricio
Werdum,
Andrei
Arlovski,
Fabio
Maldonado,
Mark Hunt,
Shane del
Rosario and
Philip De
Fries. Miocic owns five other victories by decision (25%).
17: Seconds needed for Miocic to bury
Corey
Mullis with punches at a North American Allied Fight Series
event in his Feb. 20. 2010 professional debut. More than 13 years
later, it remains his fastest finish to date.
37: Rounds completed by Miocic as a mixed martial artist. He has
gone the distance on six different occasions and carries a 5-1 mark
in those bouts. The lone outlier? A unanimous decision defeat to
dos Santos at UFC on Fox 13 in December 2014.
970: Significant strikes landed by Miocic as a member of the UFC
roster, placing him third on the promotion’s all-time heavyweight
list. Only Arlovski (1,429) and dos Santos (1,109) have been
credited with more.
1,372: Days spent by Miocic as the undisputed UFC heavyweight
championship. He struck gold for the first time when he knocked out
Werdum at UFC 98 on May 14, 2016 and held it until he lost to
Cormier at UFC 226 on July 7, 2018, then reclaimed it when he put
away “DC” with punches in their UFC 241 rematch on Aug. 17, 2019
and kept it until he surrendered it to Ngannou at UFC 260 on March
27, 2021.
440,000: Dollars in post-fight bonuses banked by Miocic across his
18 appearances in the UFC. He has been awarded “Performance of the
Night” five times, “Fight of the Night” three times and “Knockout
of the Night” once.
11: UFC bouts in which Miocic has completed at least one takedown.
The
Strong Style Fight Team cornerstone holds an 8-3 record in
those outings.
5: Countries in which Miocic has plied his mixed martial arts
trade. He has gone 16-3 in the United States, 2-0 in Brazil, 1-0 in
Canada, 1-0 in Australia and 0-1 in England.
.754: Cumulative winning percentage between the four
opponents—Ngannou, Cormier, dos Santos and
Stefan
Struve—who have defeated Miocic. They sport a combined record
of 89-29.